CITY have been told the “honeymoon is over” after their second pre-season loss at York today.

Hamza Bencherif’s second-half header was the only goal to give the Conference North side victory at Bootham Crescent.

The Bantams left out several senior players as a precaution, including Sunderland target Charlie Wyke who had suffered a knock in training.

But head coach Michael Collins felt it was a useful exercise to further assess the rest of his options in a game of very few chances.

He said: “I’m obviously disappointed it’s a second defeat but, for me, personally it’s been a chance to have a good look at people. See who is up to the challenge.

“When I came into it I viewed the first three games – Farsley, which obviously got called off, Guiseley and York – as a great opportunity to assess the squad.

“I wanted to see if there was any hangover from last season or if anyone who had come into the building who was not quite up to the level. That’s done now and everybody is aware of where we’re at.

“I’m not overly concerned. Sometimes when you start pre-season and get off to a flying start, winning two or three on the bounce, and all of a sudden you’re thinking you’re going to win the league.

“You want to win every game of football but I’d rather find things out now than three games into the season when we can do nothing about it.

“As I’ve said from day one, all I want is people who come to this club and give everything they’ve got for that Bradford City shirt.

“If I don’t see that, then things will change. It’s as simple as that.

“It’s the nature of the business and you can’t hide.

“We’ve started forming decisions off the back of what we’ve seen. It was the right decision to give everybody an opportunity.

“That’s been done and we’ll drop it down a gear now and really focus on August 4. The honeymoon period at the club is over.”